Chapter 91

While the girls and some of the kids enjoyed Fijian paradise, they were oblivious to trouble about to literally rain down on Mako. Meteorologists had predicted a monsoon coming to the Gold Coast. They expected it to be the heaviest rainfall in decades, especially for the summer. Lewis was worried by the prediction. Only Ben and the under-fives had powers that could control the rain. Due to the island's volcanic cone and location, they often drew in the worst of the weather. Cleo sometimes moved the clouds away from their location, and when that wasn't possible, Rikki could attempt to evaporate a cloud – it would sometimes delay the rainfall until it resettled in another cloud. If the rain couldn't be prevented, then Bella would create crystallised water barriers for their windows and doors – stopping the water flow. That meant the houses would never flood. Of course, due to their location on the Gold Coast, even on their kind of island, they got little rain, so these methods were not employed as much as they would have to in other places.

If this storm was as big as predicted, the island residents were in for a wet night.

On Lewis' recommendation, they all stored their precious items in waterproof containers. Anything that could not get wet was wrapped up.

"Don't you think this is a little overkill?" Zane asked. "It's an awful lot to wrap up for 'just in case.'"

"Well, you can risk it if you want," Lewis replied. "This monsoon is supposed to be a record breaker. We've never dealt with a storm of this size before on the island. And we don't have to girls to control it away. Ben can only do so much by himself."

Zane sighed and nodded.

"Okay then. Better safe than sorry, I guess,"

By five o'clock, the first of the loud cracks of thunder echoed through the sky. The torrential rain started about ten minutes later. The thunderclaps were closer together every time and the rain got heavier. Zane was enjoying his first kid free night in a long time. The other Dads were in their respective houses. Lewis was playing with his one year old, Hayden. The volume of the storm scared the four-year-olds. To stop their crying, the Dads decided to go for comfort movie watching. Will carried Stefani over to Ben and Anna's house for comfort in the form of watching that new Disney movie for the one hundredth time. Ash brought Amelia over and sat her on the couch next to Stefani. In each other's company and that of their favourite film with those ridiculously catchy songs, they cheered up significantly. Of course, Ben's four-year-old, Madeline was excited to have her friends over and was so happy that she completely forgot about the storm. She forgot about the storm for about five minutes before a thunderclap frightened her to tears. She climbed into Ben's lap for a snuggle. In seeing her elder sister upset, Natalie, wanted some daddy-time too. The three year old was jealous that Maddie got a cuddle and her sniffles were to get attention, rather than genuine fear. Lewis decided to bring Hayden over to enjoy his friends' company.

As the storm progressed, there was no let-up in water pressure. For the first time, Zane noticed leaks in his roof. He moved a chair and stood on it to try and get a better look. His eyes widened. There was legitimately a decent sized crack. At the widest indent the droplet of water dropped. That definitely had not been there a few days ago. A large gust of wind chose the moment to bluster past. The structure seemed to groan with strain. Why did Cleo decide that they had to go away this week? Maybe Lewis' plans would be worthwhile after all.

Ben had also noticed a few cracks in the ceiling. In both his and Zane's houses, buckets now line the floors. Lewis and Will decided to go back to their own houses to see the state of their own. Sure enough, it was the same way. They were drenched when they arrived back, even though they were wearing their rain jackets. They had also returned with their children's sleeping gear. They decided they might as well all stay together.

After the film and a quick and easy dinner, the Dads put their kids to sleep. Fortunately, there was spare bedding at the house – the older kids had had a sleepover earlier in the week. Dinner consisted of sandwiches. The food that existed in the house. After all, majority of meals were served in the dining hall, and were cooked by magical means. At eight o'clock, it seemed the crystallised gelatine house had had enough. There were now more decent sized cracks in the ceiling than they had buckets. They noticed a few millimetres of water across the floor. It seemed to be steadily rising however. Sat on the table in the dry part of the room. Unlike his fellow adults, he was a merman. This meant he did not want to get wet. It also meant that he could use his powers to escort the unwelcome water out of the room.

Unfortunately, more water seemed to be entering than Ben could clear. They all hoped it wouldn't get any worse.

About forty minutes later…

How was this happening? It seemed the force of the rainfall had caused cracks in the hardened gelatine houses and they were now leaking. Seriously? What could possibly happen next? Could it get any worse? Of course it could. The little mers, who had been sleeping on little mattresses on the Charles' living room floor, transformed as the growing puddle reached them. At that moment, the roof decided to give-way just above the front door. The weight of accumulating rain on that section coupled the stress on a long-term crack above the door that Bella had intended to fix, led to a gushing torrent of water flowing into the room. Within seconds, the house's water content went from a few millimetres deep to ten centimetres. Should that even be possible? Lewis groaned. Of course, this was probably the worst house to be in – it was on a slope. It was too late to move now. He criticised himself – he should have thought that through. At the time, his thought process was to keep the merman, Ben, out of the rain.

With the steadily rising water level, the newly awakened mer children were having a great time. They were swimming around and having a marvellous time. Well, at least they were enjoying this. If only there was a way to stop the water flow. Lewis had a brainwave. He smacked his palm against his forehead. Why had he not thought of it sooner?

"Stefani, honey?" Lewis asked the little girl.

"Yeah, Uncle Lewie?" she looked in his direction.

"If Ben makes a water bubble, could you use your powers on it?" he asked her.

"Of course!" she exclaimed indignant. "Uncle Lewie," she exaggerated his name. "I'm a big girl."

"Of course. Yes, you are sweetheart," he replied, trying to hide his smile under a serious façade. "We need to stop the leaks."

"What leaks?" she asked inquisitively.

"Where the water is coming from," Will answered her.

"Aw," she whined. "Why? It's fun to play in,"

"It is not supposed to be wet inside Stefani," Will explained. "I'll catch a cold."

"Is that because you're not like me, Daddy?" she asked. Will nodded. "Okay," Stefani continued brightly.

Ben made water bubbles and pressed them against the ceiling.

"Can you make it hard, Stef?" he asked gently. She nodded determinedly. They managed to fix a few and the water flow slowed down, but just as it did so, another crack opened up.

That moment, Zane decided to open the front door. He was flooded in his house and was wondering how they were faring. Outside there was a steady flow of water of about the same depth. It flowed over the slight slope and faster down the descent to the moon pool entrance.

Because of the additional water flow, Amelia, Maddie and Natalie, just went and floated out the door and down the path. Zane stared dumbly as the floated out between his legs.

"Oh no!" Will exclaimed. Ben jumped off the table to go in pursuit of his girls, before realising too late the implications. Halfway to the door, he slumped over as a merman.

"Go after them!" he exclaimed. Lewis dumped Hayden into Ben's arms and hightailed it out the door, Will and Zane on his heels.

Thunder roared as the three men set off in pursuit. It truly was a sight to see the men, drenched to the bone, chasing after three happily oblivious little mermaids.

A/N: Hey everyone! I found some inspiration :P Writers block does give you the weirdest storylines. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and maybe giggled a little at the last picture – I had a bit of fun writing it :P It's probably funnier in my imagination :P LOL

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this, and appreciated its length :P LOL I finished this chapter yesterday, but as I have to walk to my university's library to use internet, you get it today. I get internet at my flat on March 4 – not too long now. I didn't realise how dependent on internet I was until I couldn't access it for days :P Honestly, without uni work to do, it has been an effort coming up with things to do :P (Aside from getting over writers block, of course :P ) But, uni starts again for 2015 on Monday!

Anyway! I hope you enjoyed this fun little chapter, and I hope to update soon. Please tell me what you think. It really does encourage me with writing, with inspiration and knowing what you like so I can give you more of it :D

Thanks especially to the following for reviewing the previous chapter:

Starlightdreamer12 - Thanks so much! I'm glad you like the idea.

zikki 3 - Thanks :) I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

YaleAceBella12 - Thanks! I will :)

The Writer Es - Yay :D I'm glad you liked it!

CrazyHayniac - Haha. I enjoy reading your spiels :P Thanks so much! Uni starts on Monday!

Mermaids Forever - Thanks! You never know... :P It's nice to see you back and reading :)

Beaker77 - Totally agree with you there :P Thanks!

bethy679 - That's alright! I'm just glad you're back! Thanks so much for the compliment! Yep, Hunter was a sure piece of work - but fun to write :P Yay! I'll try to update soon :)

HybridsRose - Thanks! I'm glad you like the idea. I hope you enjoyed this chapter just as much :D Thanks again!

Thanks so much you guys! I love you all!

See you next time!